


Strange Company

by trashbinofdestiny



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, More characters as they appear, Sex, Soulmates, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:07:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12295947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashbinofdestiny/pseuds/trashbinofdestiny
Summary: A werewolf AU:Ardyn Izunia returns to the pack that cast him out over twenty years before, with the goal to replace Regis as pack leader. However, his plans change when he sees Regis' son, and the effects of their meeting will have lasting consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is technically for... Day 4 of Ardynoct week. I'm so behind!

It had been twenty-two years since Ardyn Izunia set foot on the Caelum family compound.

When Ardyn returned, loping down the hillside of Galdin towards the grassy stretch where the Caelum pack lived, he came alone. He kept his hands in his long jacket, his hair tied back, a silk hat shading the telltale amber of his eyes. An unknown alpha wolf was always dangerous—one who had been cast out with the sign of a traitor branded on his neck was cause for panic. The first to see him, a young pup gamboling through the strawberry patch, got one look at the grisly scar where his pack mark should be and ran, yelping the alarm, all the way to the compound gates. 

He waited there, smiling faintly as the chaos slowly spread. Children ran for cover, men and women emerged with weapons drawn, while others came forward in their wolf forms, teeth bared and snarling. At the head of this group came a young man wearing the black coat of a future clan leader and a necklace with stone witch-runes for protection. Ardyn raised his brows. Only omegas wore those runes: The last time Ardyn had run with the Caelums, they’d lived by a more traditional standard, and no omega would have dared even _try_ for the honor of leading the clan.

Like Ardyn, the young man was unarmed. He stepped up to the edge of the gate and raised a hand to the rune at his neck. 

“Ardyn,” he said. A salt breeze blew past him, carrying his faint scent, ice and stone and old blood. “You were told what would happen if you tried to return. Is it a mercy-killing you want?”

“Of course not,” Ardyn said. He’d expected this. The words he’d planned for years came so easily, sliding off his tongue with a calm that made the wolves behind the young man bristle. “I want—“ 

The young man let out a short breath, and Ardyn saw that his eyes were bright and blue as the sky over the ocean. They were the wrong eyes on the right face, with the jawline and feathery hair of a true Caelum. So Regis had sired a son after all. Ardyn smiled, and the man’s brows twitched. 

“A challenge,” Ardyn finished, but he knew now that this was a lie. He _had_ wanted a challenge, a fight to claim Regis’ title as pack leader, but now…

The young man’s hand clenched on the rune, and his startling eyes closed.

“You have the right,” he said. “We’ll have the match outside, by the orange grove.”

“We?” Ardyn asked. But the man was already shucking off his coat, seemingly unconcerned by the worried expressions on the men and women around him. He gave Ardyn a cold, dispassionate look. 

“My name is Noctis Lucis Caelum. As the son of the pack leader and heir to his title, I can fight for him.” He made a sign to a large, tawny wolf at his side, who went running for one of the larger houses. “Come on, it isn’t far.”

When he crossed the threshold, Noctis shivered. He glanced up at Ardyn, suddenly unsure, and Ardyn could smell the curiosity, the confusion, the slightest touch of fear. He bared his teeth, and Noctis turned aside.

They walked together, the fighters of the pack fanning out behind them, towards a long patch of grass before a row of orange trees. The oranges had long since been harvested, but Ardyn could taste them in the air. He watched Noctis speak to Cor, one of the older members of Regis’ pack, and Clarus, his second in command. Then he was set upon by a lanky grey wolf and a skinny creature with gold fur and blue-violet eyes, who nosed at his side and twined around him, making him laugh. The tawny wolf returned, walking slow, and Ardyn smiled as Regis Caelum approached, leaning heavily on a silver-tipped cane.

“Ardyn,” he said, when he stood at last at the edge of the clearing. Ardyn bowed. “Done licking your wounds, I see.”

“And you have yet to recover from yours,” Ardyn said. There was a faint growl from his left, and he caught a glimpse of Noctis, watching him darkly as he removed his boots, setting his clothes aside in preparation for an easier shift from man to wolf. Ardyn’s smile only widened. 

“Before we begin,” he said, pitching his voice to carry over the crowd. “I would like to name my terms.”

“The leadership of the pack,” Regis said. “Yes, we are aware.”

“Not quite,” Ardyn said, and a hush fell over the clearing. “No, I’m here to lay claim to something far more precious.” He turned to Noctis, and bowed yet again, deeper this time. “Your heir.”

Several members of the pack surged forward, Clarus first among them, as a cry of outrage burst out from the collected wolves. 

“You can’t,” said Cor, holding onto Clarus’ arm as the man deliberately started unbuttoning his jacket, preparing for a shift. “That isn’t—“

“It’s how Regis claimed the hand of his wife,” Ardyn said. “Where _is_ your precious Aulea, Regis?”

Regis didn’t answer, and Ardyn didn’t have to scan the crowd to know that she wasn’t there. “Oh, dear,” he said. “I do hope I haven’t touched on a sensitive subject.”

“It doesn’t matter.” That came from Noctis, who had stripped down to his undershirt and boxers. He was still watching Ardyn. “This doesn’t change anything.”

“Really?” Ardyn asked. Noctis shrugged, and ran a hand through his dark hair.

“Sure,” he said, and bared teeth that seemed too sharp to belong to an ordinary omega. “I’ll still beat you.”

He almost did.

When Ardyn had him pressed down on the loose, dry earth of the hillside, his beautiful, delicate face streaked with blood and reddened with rising bruises, Ardyn had collected more than a handful of new scars. His left leg was a ruin of blood, his side blooming red, a faint line crossing his nose and trailing down his jaw. Even as he leaned over Noctis, even as the cries of dismay and horror reverberated through the orange grove and echoed over the water, Noctis fought. He had a hand on Ardyn’s neck, scrabbling for a pressure point, a thumb pushing up towards his eye, and he let out a horrible, anguished shout as Ardyn’s teeth sank into the spot on his neck where his mark as pack leader would have been made. He writhed, his cry sinking into a faint keen, and his hands slipped from Ardyn’s neck as his eyes glazed over with the effects of Ardyn’s claiming bite. 

No one in the clearing dared to move. Ardyn stood, triumphant at last, and gave Regis one final, terrible smile. 

At his feet, bloody and naked and holding his neck with both hands, Noctis started to laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

Ardyn had seen his share of public bondings over the years. Most of them were ceremonial, arranged between members of the pack for a good year in advance, with all the proper runes and rituals in place. Some were made on the battlefield, during turf wars on the border. They all ended the same, of course. The omega would go hazy-eyed and docile, fawning over their mate, and the two of them would have to find somewhere quiet and out of the way to solidify their bond. Some omegas would be thrown full-force into a heat, which made the reception after the ceremony slightly awkward.

Noctis didn't simper or fawn. His expression was softer, certainly, his reflexes dulled, but when Ardyn lifted him by the arm, he didn't so much as lean into his touch. He simply stood there, swaying, blood trickling through his fingers and down his neck. 

"Sorry about this," he said, and the large brown wolf he'd walked with before bared his teeth in a silent snarl. "I'll be back soon enough."

"That's highly unlikely, my dear," Ardyn said, tightening his grip. Noctis shrugged. "I doubt your father would be quick to welcome me back into the fold." He looked to Regis, who stood in a rictus of rage, and half hoped he'd try. It would be interesting to say the least, wandering the hills of the pack compound with Noctis on a tether behind him, fat with his pups and bound to his side. For Regis to be reminded, every day, of his failure to protect what he loved.

"No, that's fine," Noctis said. He rolled his shoulders. "I should probably go with you. For now."

Then he shook himself free, gave his father a long, unreadable look, and turned to walk barefoot up the slope of the hill. Ardyn covered his own dismay with a bow and a flourish, but had to brace himself to turn his back on the wolves of pack Caelum. He strode up the hill after Noctis, and snaked out a hand to grip him by the back of the neck.

Noctis laughed.

"This isn't the way bonded omegas are meant to behave," Ardyn said. "In case you aren't aware."

"Never been one before," Noctis said. "Have you?"

"That's hardly--"

"Then I can act however I want," Noctis said. "What's your house like? Do you have a house? You didn't run here? I'm gonna be straight with you, I feel like I'm gonna pass out, and I'm not running all the way to wherever you live these days."

"I brought a car," Ardyn said, watching Noctis curiously. He stumbled, and Ardyn caught him by the arm. "She's waiting for us at the top of the hill."

"She? Yikes." 

Noctis was dead on his feet by the time they made it to Ardyn's car, the only possession he was allowed to keep after his exile. Noctis gave her a look of disgust, which was quite unfair, considering his own state of undress, and crawled into the backseat. Ardyn quickly shoved a wash rag under his neck.

"Try not to bleed on the upholstery," he warned. 

"Your fault anyways," Noctis said, and curled up on his side. He was still naked, filthy with dirt and dried blood, but beneath the gangly, bruised limbs and bored expression, there was an odd, delicate sort of beauty. He reminded Ardyn of Aulea, almost, with his narrow jaw and slender hands, wiry muscles shifting as he moved.

Noctis opened his eyes. "You stay here long enough, Dad'll send someone to kill you," he said.

"And leave you to waste away," Ardyn said. "You know what happens to bonded pairs that are separated too soon."

"He'll risk it," Noctis said. "He hates you almost as much as he hates the thought of me leaving."

"I can see why he'd want to keep you close," Ardyn said, baring his teeth. Noctis didn't even shiver. "Any alpha would leap at the chance to snatch _you_ up."

"Yeah. Sure." Noctis rolled onto his back and propped his feet on the door. Ardyn started the engine, but Noctis held still, rocking only slightly when they turned towards the road North. "You live in Niflheim territory?"

"Close by," Ardyn said. "I'm advisor to Aldercapt, so it's easier this way."

"But you aren't pack," Noctis said. "You can't be."

"You're right, I'm not. Thank you for the kind reminder, Noctis."

Noctis stretched out, closing his eyes as the breeze picked up, whipping his hair into a frenzy. "Any time."

-

Noctis' heat hit him two hours in. Ardyn felt it, a physical pull in his gut, and bit down the urge to pull to the side of the road and part Noctis' legs himself, to take him apart on the hood of his car where any unfortunate passers by could see. He ground his teeth together as Noctis' heat scent thickened, as Noctis sat up and draped himself over the back of the passenger's seat, arms dangling.

"Thought you'd fuck me before this," Noctis drawled, propping his head on the seat. He was still half asleep, eyelids drooping, fingers drumming on the seat cover. "I know you want to. I could smell it on you when we met, back at the gate."

"You're young," Ardyn said, taking care to breathe through his mouth. "One day you might understand that not all desires are purely carnal."

"Uh huh." Noctis ran a hand up Ardyn's shoulder, tangling his fingers in his hair. "I get that. I mean, it's about power. It always is. But there was something else this time. You felt it."

Ardyn kept his eyes on the road. "You're heat-sick, darling."

"Fuck you, man." Noctis brushed Ardyn's temple. "I'm not a teenager; I've had heats before. I'm talking about the soul bond."

Ardyn's hands jerked on the wheel, and he had to swerve to avoid slipping off the shoulder of the road. "Excuse me?"

"I had runes made when I was fifteen," Noctis said. He spoke in a dreamy, vague tone, drifting off despite the arousal that rose from his scent in waves. "Gladio kept trying to court me, but I wasn't sure. Mom used to talk about her soulmate all the time, you know, and there was... Someone I used to know, and... So I got the runes made, just in case. They started shaking the moment you walked up."

Ardyn thought to the runes clutched in Noctis' hands, the slight blush to his cheeks, the way he stared when Ardyn approached. The disquieting feeling that had stirred beneath the vitriol and amusement, the thrill that caused Ardyn to cast his plans aside to claim some young, cocksure omega...

"Damn," he said.

"Yeah," said Noctis. "Thought you'd be younger."

Ardyn slowly let the car idle to a stop, and parked on the side of the road. When he turned, Noctis was watching him, lips curved in a smile, blood drying on his cheek, pupils blown wide. 

"You threw the fight," Ardyn said, in a slow, careful voice.

Noctis had the gall to shrug.

"You wanted me," he said. "And now you have me. Doesn't matter how."

"And if I wanted you here?" Ardyn asked. He twisted in his seat, crouching over Noctis. "If I wanted to take you now, in this car, in the open?"

"You can," Noctis said. He leaned back, and Ardyn fell forward, cupping his neck in one hand. Noctis' lips parted, his breath hitching, and Ardyn smiled.

"And what do you want, Noctis?" he asked, climbing into the backseat. Noctis stretched beneath him, languid and far too comfortable for a man being pressed to the backseat of a car. Noctis kissed him, and Ardyn felt that thrill again, rushing through him like liquid fire in his veins.

"Maybe I'll tell you," Noctis said, and drew Ardyn down, into the warmth of his body, into his desperate, needy kisses, into an embrace so _right_ that Ardyn's nerves jangled with warning. But he knew, in the distant corner of his mind not given to pleasure, that it was already far, far too late.


	3. Chapter 3

There was once a time, centuries past, when the world was run by witches. Young women with clever tongues and strong wills, weaving magic out of spiderwebs of herbs and breath and entrails. They were to be found in the great halls of every clan, in the high buildings of every human city, terrifying and wondrous and carefully guarded. 

Now, they lived in the back rooms of small apartments and cottages, in the hollows made by hedges on the side of the road, and in the ruins of towns their ancestors once ruled. Werewolf packs still came to them, trusting their power, but the human world had little love for a girl who needed to gut a pigeon to scratch spells on a handful of rocks.

Three years after Aulea Caelum, the head omega of Regis' pack, had deemed Regis strong enough to be her mate, she had accompanied Ardyn to the home of one of the last great witches.

The house used to be the front hall of a dilapidated manor, crumbling to pieces in the hills of Tenebrae, but the woman who held court there was as powerful as Aulea, with the same presence that left those around them tongue-tied and helplessly besotted. Aulea had taken one look at her and stifled a cry, her hands flying to Ardyn for support.

"Good morning," the witch had said. "You need spells for your omegas, do you?"

Ardyn stepped forward to speak, but Aulea's words stumbled over his, spilling out in a rush.

"My name is Aulea," she said. "I'm the Omega of pack Caelum."

The witch had looked at her then, and something passed between them, something Ardyn couldn't quite place. "And what does Aulea of pack Caelum require of me?"

"Your name," Aulea said. Ardyn hissed in a sharp breath. Witches kept their names closely guarded, and to ask for them was to ask for a wealth of unnecessary curses. He prepared a conciliatory speech, one that would repair whatever insult Aulea had given, but the woman only smiled and extended a hand.

"Come with me," she said, "and I will give it to you."

And so Aulea came into the arms of her soulmate, the witch of the Nox Fleurets. She learned the name of the woman who stood between a successful alliance with Niflheim and Lucis, favoring Lucis with her spells and Niflheim with a chilly disregard. For four months Aulea shared her bed, looked after her children, and followed her like a lovestruck fool, all thoughts of the mating mark on her neck forgotten. But the witch was not a wolf, Niflheim was watchful, and soon, something would have to be done.

It wasn't personal. It was for the sake of the pack--always for the sake of the pack. But Ardyn still woke with the sound of Aulea's howl of fury in his ears, the stench of smoke, the screams of the witch's children as pack Niflheim burst through the unlocked front door.

Ardyn swore, after, as he lay in the ditch beyond the compound with his neck bleeding out from Regis' claws, that he would never be so foolish as to form a soul bond with anyone. 

-

"If your bitch is in heat, we'll need a security deposit for the caravan," said the man at the pop-up tourist trap at the edge of the cape. He looked at Noctis, who was drowning in Ardyn's jacket, using Ardyn as a makeshift armrest. Noctis narrowed his eyes.

"Not a bitch," he said. "I'll take _asshole,_ though."

"Fine," Ardyn said, dropping a handful of gil on the counter. "So long as you have a working bath, you may charge what you will."

"What a charmer," Noctis drawled. "A real alpha, providing for his weak, fucked-out--ow!" He darted aside as Ardyn swatted him. 

"The bath is for _my_ benefit, Noct."

"I'm using it first, though," Noct said. He staggered forward, then stopped, holding himself up on the plastic patio table. "Fucking heats. Leg keeps cramping up."

"Trick knee? Something you and your father share in common, then," Ardyn said, reeling Noct in to his side as he passed. Even in the worst throes of a heat, Noct was worryingly coherent--though Ardyn had to admit that his own experience with omegas was limited at best. Perhaps they were all like this. Still, as Noctis heaved himself into the caravan and lurched for the bathtub, he couldn't help but wonder if Noct had inherited more than just his looks from Aulea. 

"Turn the taps for me," Noct said, oozing into the bath. "And I'll suck you off as much as you want."

"That's what _you_ want," Ardyn said, quite reasonably. Noct had proved himself to be single-minded in his heat, groping for Ardyn's trousers at every available opportunity. Ardyn stepped into the tub, ignoring Noct's protests, and turned on the shower.

It was a testament to how exhausted Noct was that he didn't bother to stand. He sat there, knees parted, blinking up at Ardyn as Ardyn lathered his own hair in weak shampoo.

He was asleep within minutes, head lolling on his shoulders with his mouth slightly open. Ardyn crouched before him and swiped a smudge of dirt off his cheek, revealing a small beauty mark near his chin. Ardyn held his head to the side, bending down to press his lips to the raised mark he'd made.

That night, Noctis wasn't so much clingy as he was uneasy, sprawling over half the bed--and most of Ardyn--and kicking off the sheets midway through the night. He woke Ardyn twice to ride him through the last waves of his heat, head thrown back in the starlight, hand splayed out on Ardyn's chest for balance. The second time, he fell asleep with Ardyn growing soft inside him, and didn't move from his spot until the bells rang to announce the arrival of the ship heading for Tenebrae.

Most of the other passengers were humans, keeping a wide berth around Ardyn and Noct. Noct looked like the better class of a wild philosopher, naked under Ardyn's cinched jacket, hair unkempt and curling with the salt air. He sat on the railing and stared out over the water, seemingly prepared to fall asleep on the deck. Ardyn took the momentary reprieve to phrase exactly what he would say to Iedolas Aldercapt when he returned, bearing not the head of Regis Caelum but his son, newly bonded and impossible to control. 

It took him half a minute to realize that Noctis was missing from his spot at the rail. Ardyn scented him out, tracking him to a small gaggle of wolves bearing the mark of Tenebrae, which had only recently fallen under Aldercapt's territory. They were likely headed there to make their vows as new members of pack Niflheim.

"So I'm with him, now," Noctis was saying, scratching at the bite on his neck. "Ardyn Izunia. You probably know him, right? I used to be a Caelum, out by Galdin. Son of Aulea."

One of the Tenebraean wolves looked askance at her friends, mouth clenched in a hard line. "Aulea? I don't think we know the name."

"You should," Noct said. "She was the one who bonded with the--"

"Noctis." Ardyn walked to Noct's side, sliding his hand over the mark on his neck. "I believe you've bothered these poor souls enough, don't you?"

Noct rolled his eyes, and Ardyn added a touch of his influence, speaking in the cadence of an alpha who expected to be obeyed. "Noct."

"I used to train with Clarus," Noct said, blinking deliberately slow. "Try again."

"Look, we can go," one of the wolves said. She gestured to her companions, who picked up their drinks, but Ardyn paid them no mind. Noctis was just as lackadaisical as his mother, casting aside the rules of his clan on a whim, but this time, Ardyn could do something about it directly. He pressed Noctis up against the railing and growled low in his throat. 

"Do not try me, my boy," he said, in a voice thick with the force of an alpha at their most displeased. He could feel Noct's involuntary shudder, caught the flicker of a fog threatening to cover Noct's eyes, but Noct just grabbed Ardyn's hand and twisted it around, guiding it to his throat.

"What'll you do about it?" Noct asked. He was struggling to keep afloat, fighting his body's urge to bend, to bow, to obey. "Kill me? You can try."

Ardyn curled his fingers around Noctis' neck.

"Doesn't matter if I make it to your place," Noct gasped. "So do it."

Ardyn looked at the line of Noct's throat, working with every breath. He thought of Noct beaten, broken, whimpering at his feet. Begging for mercy that wouldn't come. But then Noct swallowed, and he felt the pulse of his heartbeat, and another emotion rose to the surface. Fear. Fear, lying heavy on every bruise, every cut, every thought of Noctis writhing on his knees, being sent home to Regis lifeless and cold. 

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't the shape Ardyn's revenge was meant to take.

"It's okay," Noct said, and Ardyn came to with a start, finding his arms wrapped around Noct's shoulders. Noct stood on his toes, one hand in Ardyn's hair, and kissed the grisly scars at Ardyn's neck. His eyes were glassy, almost overcome by Ardyn's compulsion. "It's the bond. Does it to everyone."

"And you're an expert on the subject, I imagine," Ardyn murmured. 

Noctis' lips curved against his neck. 

"Close enough."


End file.
